KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 7 — Malaysia’s ringgit rose for a third day as Brent crude extended its advance above US$50 (RM215.55) a barrel, helping shore up revenue for Asia’s only major oil exporter.
The commodity rallied 5.4 per cent overnight and was adding to those gains early today, with the ringgit finding support from losses in the dollar as bets for a 2015 US interest-rate increase fade. Malaysia reports exports data for August later in the day, with growth in shipments likely to have slowed for a second month, according to a Bloomberg survey.
“Crude oil prices were higher overnight and that spilled over into commodity currencies,” said Sim Moh Siong, a foreign- exchange strategist at Bank of Singapore Ltd.
“The market continues to expect the Federal Reserve to delay the lift-off, and that’s benefiting emerging-market currencies.”
The ringgit climbed 0.7 per cent to 4.3422 a dollar as of 8:47am in Kuala Lumpur, taking its advance this week to 1.7 per cent, according to prices from local banks compiled by Bloomberg.
It reached a two-week high of 4.3330 in early trading. A gauge of the dollar tracking the US currency against 10 major counterparts fell the most in six weeks in New York.
Malaysia’s exports rose 1.3 per cent in August from a year earlier, according to the median estimate of economists surveyed.
That’s down from 3.5 per cent the previous month.
Brent crude has still more than halved from last year’s high, helping make the ringgit the third-worst performer among 24 emerging- market currencies tracked by Bloomberg this year with a 19 per cent loss.
Bets for an October US rate increase are now only 8 per cent and 36 per cent for December, the last two meetings of 2015, futures show.
March is starting to look the most likely for the first move, with odds of 57 per cent compared with January’s 43 per cent. — Bloomberg
